Wednesday Night

Well, I didn’t get the lawn mowed. Didn’t feel up to it; maybe tomorrow I’ll feel stronger. I may sleep better tonight.

So, how do you get ready for bed with a two foot piece of tubing hooked up to a needle in your skin on one end and a portable pump on the other? Being a man, you know my method had to include duct tape from the Men’s Mall, Fleet Farm!

All my medical tape was so-o-o old; it wouldn’t even stick to hair, or even to bare skin for that matter. So I ran out to the garage and made do with duct tape. I ran the tubing out the neck hole of my PJs and placed the pump at the head of the bed under the pillows. It seemed to work last night.

Now, try to shower with the same set-up. Two feet—OK maybe a little more, I’ll measure it tonight—is hardly enough tubing to shower with. The pump is water-resistant, not waterproof like my watch. So the pump has to get hung outside the shower curtain while I try to keep the water off the injection site, again “water-resistant” although not as resistant as the pump.

Now try and juggle all this, wash your hair while you still have hair to wash, and still wash legs and feet and all those other parts in between. And I’m still fairly flexible. Imagine being older and not able to reach and stretch, etc.

Should I have placed a “spew-alert” on that description above? Only your responses will tell.

But I did buy some regular medical tape today and I’ll try to shave a little around where I need to tape.

Let’s talk symptoms; I started to yesterday.

The first big one was the dry mouth condition from the Cisplatin. I literally require a water bottle with me at all times to keep my mouth hydrated. (Robin, there will be NO worries about drooling showing up on the web cam, much less anything else!) I’m starting to think I might need a syringe at the bedside to get water into my mouth just to be able to open it to sip in the morning.

I just talked to a UnitedHealthCare nurse, part of the company benefits, about the dry mouth. She made several suggestions, rinsing often with salt water, holding water in my mouth to rehydrate the tissue, etc. Seems to help somewhat.

In my quest to relieve the dry mouth condition, I tried to drink some ginger ale today, which brought up another side effect, hiccups, apparently from the Aprepitant, one of the anti-nausea drugs. Two sips and I started ten minutes of hiccups. Two weeks ago this would have killed me. It’s still disconcerting, probably from the recent past history. So, despite the side effect, something has changed due to the pain meds or the anti-cancer meds, already, that allows me to survive the hiccups. Hey, I’m looking for the good news, too!

Speaking of good news, I’ve cut back on the Vicodin already. Monday night, I had my schedule increased considerably; Wednesday I’ve cut back by half from the Monday night /Tuesday levels.

More good news, I haven’t experienced any nausea side effects yet. But then I still have my hair, too. I always get a giggle when one of the side effects of anti-nausea medications is NAUSEA! Only in America!

It turns out that the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, just happens to be an In-Network Facility for my health insurance. Amy let me know about this hospital, one of the 10 best in the nation, shortly after I was diagnosed. Guess who lives in Tampa, or at least close by?

I’m going to look at this site as a second opinion type of option for right now. I’ll keep you folks from out-of-town posted. That’s what this blog is all about.

Reviewing my last post, I mentioned my memory is slipping again. I’d like to go over the reasons for that, but not tonight.

And Amy, I’ll try one of your wonder yogurts tomorrow.

Back in my post about the name at the top of the page, my dearest daughter brings up her boyfriend’s 4-year-old son’s name for me to distinguish between my son and I: Bobble Head Ben. Does this mean that I’ll have to change the name at the top of the page to Bobble H Ben’s Blog?

Zachary was a cutey. I miss playing with him, and right now I don’t think I could even keep up with him. Despite being "under the weather" (now we know why) I did enjoy our day at Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry's, Kid's in Charge Exhibit.